::dodges bullets, fireballs, and other mayhems:: Umm...sorry. It just sort of happened. I SWEAR! And you're going to want to kill me again, I think. Um...I swear to you, though, _I_ have no control over this! It just happens!! ^_^ ;; And I leave this cut off like I did because I felt that it would be better to resolve it and reunite the two groups in a separate part. Until then...well...please don't kill me. Umm. Well...you know the usual drill on the copyright stuff. Any comments can be sent to NaruMolly@aol.com, but please no more rocks through the windows. ^_^ It's hard enough to keep the cat in doors as it is. fynarra@aol.com

"Circles: PART FOURTEEN"
by NaruMolly

Nathan leaned his back against the boulder and slid down it, clutching at his chest, each breath stabbing him with pain. Another blast hit the boulder he was leaning against, and he dragged himself to his feet, stumbling after Molly and her mother to the next sheltering boulder, not daring to look back at the pursuit. He wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth before either of the others could see. "We can't keep this up forever!" Molly said, fumbling for her wand. "And I'm so tired..."

Nathan grunted, not able to draw enough breath to reply without causing himself too much pain. The ribs Joerdan had broken with that kick were doing their damage. Molly's mother gripped the musician's arm. "What'll we do?"

"I...I'll...think..." he choked, tasting more blood, but swallowing it before either could make any comment, clutching at his chest where Joerdan had kicked him. "...of something," he managed to finish.

An explosion filled the cavern, but not near them. From where Beryl waited. The three of them ducked behind a boulder and looked back. More fighters were pouring into the vast cavern that housed the Black Lake, but flower chains bedecked a few of them. Cerulean, at the front, yelled something, gesturing as the rebel army poured into the cavern, spreading out to meet Beryl's.

Nathan put his back to the boulder and slid to the ground, almost doubled over. Molly looked back at him in concern. "Are you..."

"Fine," he mouthed, trying to clear the blurring and dark edges of his vision with a head shake. He lifted his arm, and Molly, worry and doubt on her face, curled up under his arm snuggling against him while her mother leaned on his other side. "We...we..can only...wait...now..."

****

"SHIT!" Jared's mount leapt over the adonni, and he leaned low, swinging with the blade Nuada had loaned him. "I've never ridden bare back, Tuli!!" he cursed, wincing as his leg sent a fiery jolt of pain when he tightened his leg around the unicorn's flanks to stay on.

Tuli looked back over his shoulder at the yellow-haired man apologetically, then jabbed and lunged at the adonni he had just jumped over with his horn. Jared cursed and swung at another youma who came up to his side. They were outnumbered, and this time, there were no tricks.

****

"Molly..."

She turned and looked at Nathan, hearing a strange rasp to his words, almost a gurgle. His face was pale beneath his sweat-damp hair, a nasty looking whiteness around his eyes. "Nathan..."

"Molly...take your mother...run...run for the back of this alcove...a...narrow...crevasse leads to near the...entrance to the catacombs...if...if I remember..."

"What?" Molly's mother sat up, looking at him. "What will you be doing?"

Nathan coughed again, this time letting the blood trickle from the corner of his mouth. "Staying here."

"NATHAN!" Molly gasped clutching at his face, her eyes anguished.

"Molly...you must...go."

"Not without you."

"Don't..." he choked again, fighting off the pain. "...don't be a dolt, Mol'...I...can't make it, and...I bloody know it." He closed his eyes a moment, resting his head against the boulder. "I...I'm sorry...I... wanted to show you...my home..." He opened his eyes again, the deep blue glazed in pain. "I'm...sorry, Mol. I...love you."

"No..." she moaned.

"Mol...go...please...m'lung's punctured...it's...it's only a matter...of time," he raised his hand to touch her hair. "Go."

Molly put her arms around his neck, a choking sob wracking her. Nathan turned her head a little and kissed her gently. "Nathan..."

"I'm...there's...always next lifetime..." He kissed her cheek, pushing her away slightly. "I...messed up...enough this...lifetime...I...I'll be back."

Molly's mother held her daughter's shoulders, tears tracking down her own face silently. "I'm...sorry, Mr. Malley."

"Don't...don't be..." he closed his eyes again. "Go...hurry...get...to safety."

Molly had to be pulled away by her mother. Nathan opened his eyes long enough to see them slip around a boulder, then he closed his eyes, and didn't reopen them.

****

Somehow, she knew they were dead. Nathan and Malcolm were dead.

Zoe looked up at Beryl, half-way across the huge cavern from her own position, near the shore of the Lake. The singer spared a glance for Jared, his sword swings getting slower; that leg wound was straining him. She could tell. It was only a matter of time.

For her as well; she wasn't going to fool herself about the seriousness of the broken collar bone nor the amount of blood she was loosing where the bone poked through the skin. "I'm sorry we...didn't talk Mal...we should have talked. Nathan..." she found a flicker of power from somewhere deep within. "Jared...be careful, you idiot. Chase Mina and Rei and Lita. Be happy. Don't...do anything stupid," she whispered. A nearby youma looked at her curiously, shoving a few withered strands of what looked like daisies from its eyes. It backed away as a large, dark crystal blade appeared in her good hand.

"My Lady..."

"Haven't you ever seen an ice blade?"

The youma blanched and moved to join the fray. Zoe charged off through the crowd, freezing blade carving a path before her. Those that didn't move: her allies were knocked aside with a line of cold- burn from the flat of the blade and the others stabbed and shattered into a million frozen fragments.

****

Cerulean heard a short cry to his side, and turned to catch Lita as she stumbled, a set of parallel slashes reaching from her left shoulder, across her hip and down to her right hip from the half-dragon-like thing she had been facing. They were pressed too closely for her or Rei to use their powers. Lita seemed to be still alive, but she was unused to having to fight things with talons, teeth, and magic only with her fists.

Grimly, he pulled her arm around his shoulders and kept fighting while she managed to send out kicks enough to dissuade anything from coming closer on her side, though there was, of course, still the danger from magic.

"Zoe! NO!"

Cerulean's eyes widened and he turned towards where Darien fought back to back with Serena. The blonde woman was running for them, a long blade of crystal held in her good hand. Charging at Beryl who was aiming a large ball of dark energy at the two. Youma and minions alike fell to her blade, freezing and falling to shatter on the floor as the motion of her passage tipped them over.

Then there was only Joerdan and a score of adonni between her and the queen.

Cerulean's jaw dropped. For a moment, it almost looked as though she was going to make it. Beryl actually dropped her hands, staring in open shock. Cerulean wondered where the dark bruise on the Queen's chin had come from.

Then one of the creatures reached out and grabbed Zoe by the throat and shook her roughly, her sword dropping from her suddenly limp fingers to shatter on the floor and dissipating into mist. Then it flung her aside carelessly aside like a rag doll. She fell to the ground in a heap and lay still. Cerulean could only close his eyes in pain, and keep fighting.

There was nothing he could do.

****

Jared flung himself off Tuli's back at Zoe's side, heedless of the pain. Her neck rested at an unnatural angle, her position too boneless for anything alive. **By the gods; Lady Zoicite.**

Mina and Rei made it through the fighting to his side. "Oh...no..."

Jared reached out a shaking hand, closing Zoe's sightless eyes. The mans usually mobile face tightened into a hideous mask and he turned from the two scouts, dragging himself back onto the waiting unicorn's back.

****

"I do not like this," Nuada called to Cerulean, fighting his way to the man's side. "There is no sign of our captured friends," said Nuada. "Even if this Beryl is more naive than Bridgette claims, there is no way she wouldn't have flaunted them before now, despite our obvious problems."

Cerulean nodded distractedly, seeing Jared battling furiously to one side of Cerulean's vision with a suddenly glowing blade. "I don't know, my Lord. Perhaps...perhaps they escaped."

Nuada looked at him sharply, then turned back to the main battle.

"Lord Nuada! Reinforcements!"

The sidhe lord lost his dignity and spat out a string of words that HAD to be curses strong enough to peel paint. "DAMN!" he cursed, looking at Riversong. "Where are they coming from."

"No, my lord. They're ours. From the Island. And they brought the big beastie," Riversong crowed in delight, drawing back his bow and shooting the last of his exploding, crystal arrows over the main fight to the group gathered around Beryl to guard her.

Nuada blinked, then laughed out loud. Cerulean grinned, feeling lighter. "We..."

"My lord!" Cerulean turned to see Gallia struggling through the press towards him. "My lord! Sailor Earth and another human just appeared from a narrow crevasse near the head of the catacombs."

"That is good! One less thing to worry about."

"No, my lord. Lord Nephlite...is dead."

****

Molly left her mother in the protection of a couple of slightly wounded youma who had been pulled from the fight and charged into the battle, slinging small blasts of stones when she could, fighting through towards Rei and Mina. She blasted a rank or youma out of the way with a small tremor and joined the other two scouts. "MOLLY!" Mina gasped, hugging the smaller girl. She paused as the fighting moved away from them for a moment. "What--what's wrong?"

Molly dashed tears from her eyes. "We're going to find Beryl...and...and Joerdan...and we're going to kill them. We...we'll use the things that Bridgette gave us."

Rei pulled the small burnt orange colored pebble from her pocket then looked back at Molly with a sort of flat curiosity. "What...what's gotten into you?"

"Nathan...Nathan's dead...so's Malcolm...if...if Joerdan was telling the truth."

Mina paled. "Zoe...Zoe's dead too. And Jared...he..." she pointed across the battle to the furious man on the unicorn.

Molly nodded once. "Let's...find Serena, Ami, and Lita and go get them."

Rei nodded once. "I owe Beryl one, too." She touched a few silvery white hairs wrapped around one wrist, and the three girls began fighting their way through to Serena and Darien.

****

Ami frantically tapped at her computer, yelling out new information to the runners that had been assigned to her. Before her stood two huge cats, the size of cave lions, snarling and keeping the youma at bay. One was pure white but for a crescent moon in the center of his forehead. The other, a dark blue-gray. Luna and Artemis. "They're trying to flank us on the right, and Beryl's gathering her power again to do something."

The slender youma with the almost chrome skin ran off to the commanders. "Ami!"

She turned to see Rei pushing between Luna and Artemis. The raven-haired girls eyes were on fire with some dark emotion. "What?"

"Come on; and get out that stone Bridgette gave you. We're going to get them. Now."

****

Lita was managing to keep her own feet now, aiming the smaller blasts of lightning she had learned to control out at her attackers. (Zoe and Nathan dead. And more going to be soon.) She dared to turn her eyes from her assailant to peek over her shoulder and over Cerulean's where he put his back to hers. (That's not Jared in there,) she thought with a shudder. (He isn't like that. He cooks and tells jokes and is like a big brother to anyone.) The yellow-haired man had gotten power from somewhere. Energies crackled around his hands and down his blade to destroy youma and the human minions alike when they came too close. The unicorn he rode seemed to have picked up on his rider's rage. It leapt about like an avenging demon, slashing with its horn and hooves, it's silvery-white coat and gleaming horn dulled with all of the splashed blood and ichor.

"Lita!"

She turned to see Serena striking out with the moon wand, forcing her way into the close quarters where Cerulean, Lita, and Nuada fought, Darien and the other scouts at her back. "Sailor Moon! What--" began Cerulean.

"We're going to try to break through. A straight rush," said Darien, his hand on Serena's shoulder, though his eyes were fixed on Molly. "We can't take much more of this pitched battle."

Nuada opened his mouth, then looked at Molly himself. "I see. Perhaps that will be enough." He raised his head and called out in his strange tongue the command that they had all been taught. "*NDAK!*" Charge.

The army surged forward.

****

"What's that?" asked Melvin, grabbing Quicksilver's shoulder and pointing.

The healer looked up from his bloody hands and stared. A point of light was hovering over Bridgette's head where she held Malcolm's body close to her shoulder. "I...I don't know, Melvin. I..."

There was a flash, and Bridgette was gone, Malcolm's corpse falling to the soft grass gently, as though someone eased him down. The light vanished with a final twinkle.

****

Jedite was startled by the power of his new self's fury. HE had no clue where Jared was summoning the strength to sent out flares of power that Jedite would have been proud of while being completely rested. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard faint music somewhere where a faint light glowed. Jedite could do nothing but let Jared's fury carve him through the ranks of youma towards where Beryl waited.

Then a clear baritone rose over the sounds of battle, a ringing word. "*NDAK!*"

**Jared. Jared we're charging.**

**I know that. What in hell do you think I've been doing?**

Jedite said nothing more but muttered a prayer to ANYONE that they would get through this as the rebel army gave a low cry and surged forward.

****

"What ARE they doing?" asked Beryl, turning to Joerdan.

"I do not know, my queen." Joerdan squinted through the dim light to the gathering of the leaders, taking his eyes of the frightening prowess of his former lord and his mount. "Perhaps a planning--"

The tall, silver-haired man with the silver arm cried out a single ringing word. The rebels stopped fighting instantly, and turned as one...

...charging straight for their position.

"My Queen...perhaps we should retreat..."

"SILENCE!" she knocked Joerdan back, closer to the edge of the Lake. Joerdan rolled away just before a tentacle struck where he had been. "I will not retreat!"

Joerdan winced, but eyed the sides. No escapes but death or a teleport, and Beryl would kill him even before he had gathered enough power to do so. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a deep red crystal; one he had found on the roof of the school near a pile of discarded equipment. Just enough energy to get across the cavern.

****

"She's in range!" Ami screamed, tossing aside her computer and pulling out a heavy dark pebble.

"NOW!"

Each of the Scouts clutched the small stones in their hands screaming out their commands in unison so that the words all blended together into one cry. Darien pulled a rose, pausing, his eyes on the Scouts as masses of energy built up around them, gathering in front of Serena's moon wand. Molly's voice spoke up again, voice low. "For Nathan...AND Nephlite!"

Rei snarled, "For Kali!"

Ami frowned. "For Zoe."

The power surged blindingly bright and Serena released it. It smashed its way through the youma and into the place where Beryl stood.

****

"Oh....SHIT!" Joerdan crushed the life crystal in his hand just as the Sailor Scouts released the incredible blast, appearing in the shadows across the cavern. He looked back.

Between the line of Scouts and Beryl there was nothing left standing. The very stone was polished to a glassy smoothness. But Beryl had only been pushed back a step. The Queen laughed. "Is that the best you can do? I have life-forces enough to turn you all to dust."

Jared and his mount slammed into Beryl, knocking the three of them into the Lake.

****

"The Lake has no Master," Cerulean muttered in faint horror as the Lake bubbled and surged around the three.

"Jared! NO!"

Cerulean turned and caught Lita before she could go to him. "Lita...there's nothing we can do...we must get out of here. Now."

She sagged against his shoulder sobbing bitterly, but allowed herself to be led swiftly across the cavern. Gallia approached from one side, cradling the limp form of Nephlite in her arms, her eyes fixed on the entrance to the catacombs. Ami blinked. "Did...anyone else see...that? That flash...flash of light just before...Jared went in?"

Cerulean shook his head. "No. I...couldn't watch."

Nuada looked at Lita strangely, leading Molly's blank-faced form along. "I thought that you cared for Lord Cerulean, Lady Jupiter."

"Jared...Jared was..."

"He's more the brother, I think," said Rei softly, ignoring the tears running down her cheeks. "A brother...and Lita's already lost one family."

****

Joerdan blinked at the churning Lake, then turned to slip into the catacombs before the rebels and the others fled into them.

A lone figure stepped into his path. "For my daughter. And for that boy."

Miss Baker drove the borrowed blade deep into the Commander's chest and turned away, not even looking back as Joerdan choked, falling to the ground, his eyes closing forever.

****

Silence.

Dust settling around the collapsed entrance to the catacombs.

A dragon trying to comfort a distraught girl.

"A Gate," Nuada said softly, looking around the stunned army. "To the Island."

Cerulean, looked up, his hands stroking Lita's hair. "We have quite a way back to the Gate to take us--"

"No; not that sort of Gate." Nuada looked the new leader in the eyes. "I helped to create this place once; I can manage that much, at least."

Cerulean nodded. "Do it."

The sidhe lord looked at him sideways, then smiled. "When Mortals order the sidhe, then it is time to check the fish for legs, as a Bard friend of mine once said." He turned and raised his hands, drawing power around him like a second cloak.

END PART 14

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